Monthly Sketch Challenges

Each month my friend Jen posts two card sketch challenges on two different sites.  I look forward to each first day of the month to see what she has thrown our way for inspiration.  I am never disappointed.

Below are the two cards I made for each challenge.  I know I wouldn't have made these had it not been for Jen getting us to work outside our every day ideas.  Thanks Jen!


Submitted to Club Scrap Forum:


Kraft card stock with all Club Scrap stamps and ink

Submitted to Paper Artists Online Forum:

Club Scrap card stock and chicken wire stamp,  WPlus9 Design Studio Dies, Hearts & Clouds, WPlus9 Design Studio Clear Stamp Set, Heartfelt Mix and Memory Box Dies, Resting Birds which were die cut from assorted papers from Simon Says Stamp kits.

PAO Art Journal Challenge

This weekend I joined in on the PAO Art Journal Challenge as part of the celebration of National Scrapbooking Day.  I learned a lot!  I learned I don't know much about art journals and how they are constructed with multiple applications of gesso, matte medium, gel medium and so on.  But that didn't stop me from striking out on a slightly different path, creating one anyway and enjoying every minute of it.

What I did do was explore and play with chip board, gesso, stencils, masks, inks, Dylusion Ink Sprays and Distress Paints.  Loved every messy minute of it.

First I started with cutting chip board into 6x6 squares for the pages and added large shipping tags for additional journaling space.

Covered each page in Gesso, front and back.

Now came the fun part of using Distress Paints to color each page plus I found some items to adhere to a few of the pages before painting.

Next I started adding stenciled images with Dylusion Sprays and stamped bold flower and feather stamps by Alisa Burke using Distress Paints.

Finally I bound the whole mess with my Bind-It-All.

His and Her Cards Day Three : Sympathy Cards

Only had time for one of the challenges today.  I chose this inky watercolor look.  This card folds with a pocket inside.  The extra card with the sentiment inserts into the pocket.  Stamps are from Club Scrap: leaf stamp from Natural Resources and flower from Blossoms collections.

His and Hers:

His and Her Cards Day Two: Set Two

I don't know how I feel about these cards.  I was iffy on them but thought they would be simple enough to try just the same.  I kept to one look and used it for both masculine and feminine.  The idea was to die or color pieces of sheer vellum with alcohol pens or what ever was handy.  Anything could be used here.  Distress Stains, ink pads, etc.  I used my Spectrum Noir markers for this.


Her:   I think this looks better in the photograph than in real life, LOL.   I will say that using the Scotch brand Vellum Tape to adhere the pink squares works great.  It's invisible.  I used a different glue for the banner and it needed to be covered up...hence the flowers.

His:  Rather dull.  I will add something to this card if I get around to using it.

His and Her Cards Day Two: Set One

Another day another batch of cards.  First set was a very interesting lesson in colors of the rainbow.  At least for the Her card.  I just went with my gut feeling rather than try to follow the actual steps shown in how to add these colors in rotation.  I also did not have a solid stamp for this challenge so just went with this fern-like leaf stamp.  I am pretty happy with the results.  I stamped the rotation by eye rather than using any device to position the stamp each time.  It worked!

Her:

His:  Same idea and stamp as used above but using white pigment ink and more muted, masculine colors.  I particularly like this one and would use this technique of "ghosting" again.

His and Her Cards Day One - Second Set

Second set today was fun.  All done on kraft card stock, stamping with white pigment ink and coloring in the images.  I used a variety of ink and pencils for the coloring.  Some masking was involved for setting the angle of the images.


These first two cards were colored with PITT Pastel pencils.  Love the vibrant colors!

These last two (his on left, hers on right) were colored with Distress Markers.  Such a different feel and look from the pastel pencils.  I like them both.

His & Her Cards Day One - First Set

I'm taking another class from Online Card Classes.  I love these classes and how it stretches me to use my stash of paper and stamps in a new way.  This class is all about making his and her cards using the same designs but changing a detail or two to make it masculine or feminine.  I use these classes to get new ideas.  Some samples I follow closely and others I use as a jumping off point and let my imagination take over.  The below cards loosely represent the challenge.

First was a nice technique using Distress Markers as a source for watercoloring stamps.  I used the water color technique for the feminine card.  The masculine card was fun since it is made up of "found" items I totally forgot about.

Hers:

His: